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Bah, humbug! Why some Japanese men who are ‘losers with women’ hate Christmas

The men belong to a Communist-inspired group of singletons that has held past marches to denounce imported Western holidays, including Valentine’s Day

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Members of a group of men calling themselves "Losers with Women", shout anti-Christmas slogans in Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo. Photo: AFP

It’s become a bit of a holiday tradition in Japan: groups of angry, unloved men taking to the streets to protest society’s discrimination against their single status and the commercialisation of Christmas.

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About two dozen men from the protest group, Losers with Women, which is a faction of the Revolutionary Losers’ League, paraded through Tokyo’s Shibuya district on the weekend chanting against the injustices of capitalism. Their demands were all too often drowned out by Christmas songs blaring out from shops and restaurants.

Others protesters wielded banners, one of which read “Smash Christmas,” as they passed couples and families going about their preparations for the festive season largely oblivious of the demonstration.

Angry Japanese men hit the streets of downtown Tokyo calling for the
Angry Japanese men hit the streets of downtown Tokyo calling for the

It was, however, unclear whether the protesters were more angered at capitalism and consumerism or their failure to find a girlfriend for the gift-giving time of year.

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“In this world, money is extracted from people in love and happy people support capitalism,” the leader of the group, who goes by the pseudonym MarkWater, told AFP.

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